9/11 Hauntology Essay

The September 11 attack had a complete emotional, social and economic impact on the Muslim community in North America. Since this horrific event, many Muslims in north America have suffered due to the effects brought upon them by this tragedy. Psychological effects as well as discrimination and hauntology have acted as some of the largest effects of the 9/11 occurrence. These and others have also caused the leading way to the hauntology period post 9/11. First it is important to understand what occurred during the events of September 11th 2001. Although one will never truly be able to explain what happened or know exactly why it did, all that is known is the story that has been told to us through media. Four passenger airliners were hijacked
by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists so they could be flown into buildings in suicide attacks. Two of those planes were crashed into the north and south towers, of the World Trade center; and within two hours, both of the towers collapsed causing the loss of many individuals. Right away, the media went into blaming al-qaeda for the involvement. Unfortunately with doing this, the Muslims in North America started to begin their suffering. Names started to be called, and the process of excluding Muslims began, followed by the hantology the media continues to attempt to portray up to date. Many countries strengthened their anti-terrorist, legislation and expanded law enforcement powers. Unfortunately, the circumstances that occurred happened to be involving those of the Islam religion, which resulted in the ignorance of the world believing that there were planned future threats on the way involving those who were Muslim. Since then, Muslims have been forced to endure the actions and forced opinions of those who are non Muslim, as Muslims have begun to live with hyphenated identities. In other words, Muslims have become recognized for their religion as opposed to the people they are, and have been grouped together with those of the criminal background. Further, the play of hauntology has been the leading cause of excluding Muslims and making their life in a country that is not their own very difficult to tolerate at times.
Hauntology, the term that fundamentally came from Marx’s assertion of a specter “haunting” and communism” (___). This term allows for the separation and ignorance of realization that suffering is still present in the world; and allows for the haunt, which provides a fresh interest in communism. The government has played with the media in creating a brainwashing campaign that the Muslims in the world are here to harm the west; forgetting to realize that they too lost loved ones to the 9/11 tragedy. The government has used the easiest form of targeting in order to accomplish power. Due to the fear that has been instilled into society, by the media and the government, it makes individuals believe that there is a need for extra security; resulting in more power for the government and more job opportunities in the sector of security. This is not to mention that movies and even television shows such as, Family Guy and American Dad, have portrayed Muslims to be “terrorists” in a comic yet offensive way. Although many are still in denial about the fact, the truth is the incidents that occurred on September 11th, 2001 have reacted in psychological effects for many people. For those of the Muslim religion who are now suffering with discrimination by those around them, and for the rest of the individuals who live
in fear everyday they get out of bed. Living in fear is an extremely negative affect on people. One can no longer go about their day the way they used to when they felt safe in the place they reside. Overall, it is unfortunate that the Muslim religion has been hijacked for evil ends, distorted and degraded by the actions of what we believe to be of Al-Qaeda. Moreover, harassment and prejudice have played a role along with humiliation.
The attacks of 9/11 were labeled as “Muslim terrorists” and evil personified was given to a Muslim face. We were told that these Muslim terrorists were tied to and joined to Muslim countries. Which clearly identified that the media wanted to brainwash us into believing that Muslims were not to be trusted. A documentary on PBS titled, “Religion & Ethics” spoke about the results of post 9/11 actions on the topic of how Muslims were treated after the tragedy. A family that was finally beginning their life and attempting to live an “American dream: was let down that week due to the fact that they were Muslims moving into a “white neighbourhood.” When the family arrived at their new home and got out of their minivan, the neighbours quickly cleared the street and went indoors. This was just a reminder of the arduous path that was ahead for this family. The American-Muslims were caught off guard from living in their own ways feeling free and comfortable. For young Muslim teens, they began to feel embarrassed and ridiculed by their peers, due to the fact that they began to exclude them. When Muslim teens tried to proudly continue to with the traditions of their faith, they were made fun of or excluded; which lead them to hide their identity. At time of Ramadan, teens who were fasting would go sit by themselves in the library or in a washroom so that their peers would not see them. Additionally, hoping
to go unnoticed, being a devout Muslim surely wouldn’t help anything at the time. Muslim teens started to become ashamed by the Islamic identity they had flourished; to the point where they would instruct their mothers to pick them up about fifteen minutes late so that the other kids would not see their mothers wearing hijab. This type of ignorance is causing individuals to want to hide their faith out of fear. Overall, although Muslim is a religious label and does not pertain to race, the line between racism and religious discrimination is many times blurred (___). Muslim Americans are often perceived as a monolithic group, and conceptualized as acting, thinking and behaving similarly despite wide ethnic differences. There are two ways to look at this. Although it is great to remain with a group identity to show how close the Muslim brothers and sisters can be, the unity shared is also used against them. The fact that Islam is a religion to portray “one” and wholeness, is used once again by media to see the negativity within. Media attempts to say that if Muslims are all one, then they must be the same. Therefore, if one commits a crime, then all of them will eventually mimic. We have allowed ourselves to enter and accept the brainwashing process; only to result in Islamophobia, a dread of hatred of Islam. Furthermore, in my opinion, Islam in America will continue to be viewed in a negative connotation as long as individuals allow themselves to believe that they need protection and extra security in order to be safe. By following along with this belief, we are allowing for the discrimination and racialization against Muslims to occur. It is is important to realize that we live in a generation in which many people of different backgrounds come together to form a brand new society, which is what happens when Muslims immigrate to North America. They are willing to put their differences aside of those with different religious views and live in accordance with their traditions, as long as they keep those of their own religion. We should be doing the same. we need to accept that not everyone is the same and willing to do the same thing just because they are of the same religious backgrounds. For example, just because one American decides to walk into an elementary school and shoot half of the people they see, does not mean we should discriminate against every American. Therefore, what makes us believe that we should do that with Muslims? The main problem goes back to that of hauntology. While believing that we are doing what is best for our society and future generations by asking for more security, we are actually falling into the trap of ignorance. We live in fear because we have been brainwashed to believe that Muslims are the reason we need extra security and the assurance that the government will promise it.